"Mm."
In the brightly lit room, at some point the situation has flipped.
Cynthia's eyes are squeezed shut.
Only when she seems to feel something does she snap back to herself.
She jerks her head to the side and shoves at Damian's hand on her chest.
"Take it out."
Cynthia's voice is tight with shame and anger.
They'd agreed on just a kiss.
But Damian actually went for her chest—fine, maybe she could barely tolerate that.
Then he even slipped his hand inside her bra and started squeezing.
How is that okay?
"I didn't mean to."
Damian sounds very innocent.
But seeing the shy flush on Cynthia's beautiful face—she really is gorgeous.
Cynthia doesn't say a word.
She stands, straightens her clothes, forces herself back under control, then leaves Damian's room at once.
She has to get out of here fast.
Damian really is way too dangerous.
"I thought this woman didn't know how to be shy."
Damian doesn't stop her.
He's already made out like a bandit tonight.
And Cynthia really does smell amazing.
"Yeah. A woman like that could absolutely be the mother of my kids."
Damian's lips curl upward.
No rush.
Take it slow.
Outside Damian's room, door closed, Cynthia leans back against the wall.
Her heart is pounding faster than it ever has—even more than the first time she won the Lily of the Valley Conference.
Is this… really okay?
Cynthia lowers her head.
Her golden hair spills down, hiding her beautiful, faintly flushed cheeks.
Her mind runs back over what just happened.
She'd actually done something that intimate with Damian.
It shouldn't be like this.
Damian isn't just Team Rocket's boss.
He has a girlfriend.
And then there's Caitlin.
Caitlin likes Damian that much, but even she held herself back from confessing because Damian already has a girlfriend.
And Cynthia—what does that make her?
Cynthia's eyes go a little unfocused.
And she'd promised Caitlin, too.
"Cynthia?"
A soft, elegant girl's voice cuts in suddenly.
"Caitlin."
Cynthia's heart jumps.
She turns and sees Caitlin in a noble, gorgeous pink dress.
"Cynthia, what are you doing here by yourself?"
Caitlin's eyes narrow slightly.
She's already picked up that something's off.
In her impression, Cynthia is not the type to stand around helpless.
But just now, seeing Cynthia leaning here with her head down…
That lost, dazed posture is something she's never seen from her.
And that startled reaction when she first heard Caitlin's voice—
Yeah, that looked a lot like panic.
Caitlin's observational skills are razor‑sharp.
It was just a moment, but she caught it.
Mostly because Cynthia is always so rational, composed, and elegant.
She really stands out.
"I just came out of Damian's room. You know I'm acting as his maid now."
Cynthia shakes her head and answers calmly.
Subtext: there's nothing going on between her and Damian.
"Oh. And what were you two doing just now?"
"I scrubbed his back."
Cynthia lets out a quiet sigh.
"This is probably the first time you've had to do something like that, right? Sorry you have to put up with it."
Caitlin looks Cynthia in the eyes.
She doesn't see anything there.
As for scrubbing Damian's back?
Caitlin doesn't care about that.
She forces herself to set her suspicions aside for now.
She trusts Cynthia's character.
Since Cynthia promised her…
Caitlin believes Cynthia won't try to steal her man.
"It's fine. He saved Snowpoint City. I'm really grateful to him."
Cynthia's answer leaves no cracks to pry into.
"Caitlin, did you just get back from outside?"
Cynthia changes the subject.
She's absolutely not telling Caitlin what really happened in that room.
If Caitlin knew, Cynthia has no idea how she'd face her.
"Mm. Doing special training with Lugia and the others."
Caitlin nods.
As she speaks, she lifts a hand to cover a lazy yawn.
She's tired.
"You must be. Go get some rest. I'm heading back too."
"Good night, Cynthia."
The elegant young lady walks slowly toward her room and goes in.
Cynthia watches her close the door.
Her lips press together; her expression is tangled—and guilty.
Sorry, Caitlin.
Morning, next day.
Cynthia stands outside Damian's door, hesitating.
After last night, of course she's wavering.
But waking Damian up is part of her "job" now.
She opens his door and steps in.
"Damian, it's getting late, you need to wak—… mm…"
A few minutes later, Cynthia walks calmly out of Damian's room.
As expected, she sees Caitlin sitting not too far away.
"Is Damian up?"
"Mm. He should be out any minute."
At that, Caitlin nods.
She gives Cynthia a glance, then goes back to thinking through her special training plans.
Yep.
Cynthia really is the reliable one.
Nothing like Erika and Elesa, those two.
They were supposed to be acting as maids, and somehow that turned into them ending up in Damian's bed.
And a simple "wake Damian up in the morning" job turns into them staying in there for ten, twenty minutes?
How is that remotely proper?
Cynthia, seeing that Caitlin hasn't noticed anything, quietly congratulates herself on her caution and common sense.
Good thing she straightened her clothes before coming out, and even kept lip stain in her pocket.
If not, she'd definitely have been caught.
She really didn't have a choice.
Cynthia's already noticed a creepy pattern.
Every time she comes out of Damian's room—
There's like a ninety‑five percent chance a blonde psychic noble lady will "spawn" right at the door.
Seriously.
The spawn rate is insane.
So Cynthia came prepared.
And she doesn't dare linger in Damian's room.
That guy's way too much.
Last night he at least waited ten minutes of kissing before sneaking his hand under her clothes.
This time he got his hand in there as soon as their lips met.
That's seriously going too far.
After the three of them finish breakfast—
Yesterday's big operation at the Michina ruins is over.
This morning, most of the Blueberry Academy students have either already left or gone off to tour Michina Town.
Rosa and Hilda headed out early too.
They left a note saying they're going to look for fun spots nearby.
Since they're only in Sinnoh for a couple days before heading back to Unova, they want to make the most of it.
"So, where are we going next?"
Cynthia asks Damian.
Technically, she should be leaving his side now.
She only stayed with him to see how he was going to swallow Team Galactic.
Now that Cyrus has been captured by Team Rocket, Team Galactic is basically finished.
Even if they haven't been completely wiped out yet, their leader Cyrus is already shipped off to dig rocks as a miner.
What future could Team Galactic possibly have?
But because of the Snowpoint City incident, she still owes Damian some time as his maid.
Damian's phone buzzes.
He takes a call, hangs up, and waits a bit.
A new packet of intel comes through.
"Just got something interesting."
Damian studies the data on his phone with clear interest.
"Cynthia, do you know how many Admins Team Galactic actually has?"
"Three, right? You've already taken them all."
Cynthia thinks it over and answers.
She's talking about Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
"Right and wrong."
Damian just laughs.
"Team Galactic actually has five Admins. One of them, the strongest, got sent to Kanto years ago and planted in Team Rocket as a spy."
Damian really feels like Cyrus's brain's wired wrong.
Sird is that good, and he uses her as a spy.
Sird's way stronger than Mars and the others, and she's got a brain, finesse, and serious skills.
With a subordinate like that, you keep her close and give her real responsibility.
Instead, he ships her off as a spy?
Cyrus is way too "relaxed" about this.
"?"
A question mark might as well be floating over Cynthia's head.
"But that spy's already defected to me. And besides her, Team Galactic has another Admin: Charon."
Damian's eyes narrow slightly.
Cynthia digs through her memory.
She has heard the name—supposedly a scientist in Team Galactic?
"Charon himself isn't a full‑on scientist, but he's got solid research chops. He even made a machine that can control Pokémon."
Damian does remember Charon pretty clearly.
In the original line, once Cyrus got dragged into the Reverse World by Giratina, Charon took over Team Galactic and tried to capture Heatran.
"He's made a move?"
Cynthia more or less gets it.
Damian must have gotten some intel.
"Yup. The guy's not dumb."
Damian nods.
"Looks like he realized yesterday that Cyrus is 'out of the picture.'"
"Team Galactic actually managed to quietly capture all three Lake Guardians."
Damian and the two women walk out to the edge of the small town near Michina.
Damian sends out Reshiram.
"Sird said Charon got in touch with her. He's trying to talk her into coming back to Sinnoh to keep working on Cyrus's unfinished business."
"They're almost done extracting the Lake Guardians' power. He wants to go to Spear Pillar, summon Dialga and Palkia, and control them."
Damian honestly didn't expect it.
He already "stomped Cyrus out" early.
And Charon still managed to inherit his plan.
"What?"
Cynthia's eyes widen.
"Don't panic. We'll go check Team Galactic's HQ first."
Damian isn't fazed.
Charon's just a small fry.
Even if he really does manage to drag out Dialga and Palkia—so what?
As long as they break the Red Chain, Charon can't control either of them.
Using an item to control Legends is always a massive risk.
Right now, Damian's thinking about something else.
He looks up at Reshiram.
Then glances at Cynthia and Caitlin beside him.
"Charon already gave Team Galactic HQ's location to Sird. We'll head over and take a look. We'll ride Reshiram—it's faster."
Ride the legendary Reshiram?
Cynthia's expression shifts; she looks up at the gorgeous, coldly noble Dragon.
Reshiram really is beautiful.
Reshiram lifts its head a little, its blue dragon eyes gazing off into the distance.
Its posture is effortlessly cool.
In reality, though…
Okay, so both of these human women are people Damian likes.
They're going to be his wives someday, right?
Shouldn't it be nicer to them?
Maybe it should start building a good impression now, for its Trainer's future brides.
That way, when Kyurem joins the team later and starts bullying it, it won't have to suffer alone.
With these two around to whisper in Damian's ear, maybe it won't have to fear Kyurem quite so much… right?
Damian has no idea what Reshiram's thinking.
He quickly sorts out the seating.
"I'll sit in the middle. Which of you wants the front?"
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